Whisky Part Two

3 More Things Every Scot Knows About Whisky

— it’s not just delicious, it’s for everyone. Visit Scotland and you’ll see how seamlessly the delicious golden drink is integrated into the culture there. Here’s a few more pearls of smoky wisdom directly from the hooch’s home.

There’s lots of ways to drink it, but one we particularly recommend

You can do whatever you want with your Scotch. You can drink it with soda, with crushed ice. Heck, you can even pour Coke into it (if that’s what floats your boat). Don’t let anyone tell you there’s a “right” way to drink Scotch, especially if they’re acting all purist about drinking it neat.

However, there is one way we recommend, and it comes straight from David Stewart, Balvenie’s Malt Master. He’s the guy who’s spent over 50 years sniffing, tasting and mixing together Balvenie’s casks in order to producer its signature bottles. He’s basically the Obi-Wan Kenobi of whisky, and so when he says he drinks it a certain way, we listen.

What Stewart does is add a little water to the whisky, which is pretty much the way everyone drinks it over there. There are often pitchers or even little taps on the bars for that very reason. But he adds more than the standard few drops; the preferred Stewart whisky to water ratio is 2:1. It’s worth trying, as it really opens up the flavor of the drink. You see, particularly with a strong hooch like cask-strength Scotch (which we mentioned in the first part of this series), the taste of the alcohol itself — ethanol specifically — can overwhelm the subtler oaky and smoky flavors of the whisky. Diluting it a bit allows you to experience the whisky in its full woody glory.

Booze comes from booze

We’ve already learned that whisky is basically distilled beer, but only about 30% of a given Scotch’s taste comes from the malting and distillation process. The remaining 70% comes from the aging process. The clear spirit is poured into barrels and then aged for years — usually at least 12, but sometimes for decades more.

It’s the barrels themselves that give the liquid its color, ranging from golden to dark amber, and of course, its flavor.

Different barrels give different results, and what often gives a Scotch its distinctive flavor is what the barrels were used for before they stored whisky. Distillers use casks that had previously aged bourbon, sherry, port and even rum (in the case of Balvenie’s Carribbean Cask line). In many cases, the spirits will be aged for 12 years in whisky oak casks and finished for about another six months in another “flavor,” like sherry (as is the case with Balvenie’s Double Wood), giving the drink a subtle new flavoring.

Whisky drinkers are promiscuous (though not necessarily the way you think)

On a tour of Duncan Taylor, an independent bottler in Speyside, we heard a funny term applied to whisky drinkers. That word was “promiscuous,” and it didn’t refer to Scotch enthusiasts’s sexual proclivities after a few too may drinks (although that may also be the cause). No, it referred to the fact that while many Scotch enthusiasts may have favorite drinks, they’re not bound to the same kind of brand loyalty as, say, smokers or cola drinkers. With hundreds of varieties to choose from, there’s no reason to commit to any particular brand or bottle for life. In fact, that’s one of the fun parts of whisky enthusiasm. There’s almost a Pokemon-like “gotta catch 'em all” aspect to drinking Scotch. And while prices can sometimes be steep, there are plenty of affordable options, and a bottle of the brown stuff will most likely last you much longer than a similarly priced bottle of wine, which you can kill over a meal.

If you’re in the mood for something sweet and honey-tasting, try the Balvenie Double Wood. Want something subtle and smooth with hints of vanilla? The Glenfiddich 15 Year is a particularly nice choice (and in our opinion, a huge leap over the 12 Year). Want something smoky, peaty and rugged? Try a bottle from the isle of Islay, like Bowmore or Laphroaig, which can taste like drinking liquid oak (in a good way). Recently, we sampled a bottle of Ardbeg, also from Islay, that was so dark and smoky it stopped us in our tracks. It was almost bitter. The point is, whisky flavors and experiences vary widely with region, distillery, even by the kinds of wood used. There’s plenty to explore and no real “wrong” whisky to try. Figuring out which kind suits your tastes is really just part of the fun.